Snarkastic

BEST MOTION PICTURE OF THE YEAR

Avatar

LIVIA: It is unusual for a movie to be so heavily nominated and yet receive zero acting nominations. Two prominent exceptions are "The Two Towers" and "Return of the King". Avatar isn't a trilogy (I pray), so they might take the opportunity to reward it while they have the chance. I didn't hate Avatar; it was extremely entertaining. However, it definitely didn't grab me the way it grabbed some other people.
NASTINCHKA: This is going to sound unbearably bratty, but I think there's a bigger picture with Avatar that's not getting as much attention as all the cash it's raking in. (And haters to the left: It is the height of indie snobdom to dismiss this thing because it made half a bil. Oxygen's pretty fucking popular, too, and entirely necessary.) And it's not a hard conclusion to get at: James Cameron has gone and changed the way movies are gonna get made. Again. If faced with a 10-screen multiplex showing all the Best Picture nominees, I'd make fast tracks for the Tarantino, but Avatar is the most important movie of the year. A vote for this film is a vote for the future, and if the future is apparently Dances With Wolves In Space, get me to my flying pterodactyl-horse.

The Blind Side

LIVIA: REALLY? The inclusion of this movie for Best Picture is the most compelling reason to shrink the field back to 5 for 2010. "The Blind Side" is not "The Dark Knight". For shame.
NASTINCHKA: [THUD.] Unlike The Lovely Bones, The Blind Side has the advantage of having brilliant and engaging source material to draw from. The results are just as exasperating.

District 9

LIVIA: For my money, this is still the most compelling film of the year.
NASTINCHKA: The most pleasant surprise of the year. The blisteringly thorough HUMANS ONLY ad campaign that swept through the city leading up to District 9's release in no way prepared me for the plot, for which I cannot overstate my appreciation enough.

An Education

LIVIA: Jay referred to this as an "overwrought piece of trash". Good enough for me.
NASTINCHKA: Seriously, if there's a more pinpointed audience for this than Jay ... I abide by his judgment. Also, sadness in love irritates me right now for no discernible reason. GET OFF ME, COUNTRY MUSIC.

The Hurt Locker

LIVIA: The only other legitimate contender. Will they split the vote between Director and Picture, giving Bigelow and Cameron Oscars?
NASTINCHKA: Probably, inevitably. And that's just how it should be.

Inglourious Basterds

LIVIA: Great flick.
NASTINCHKA: In the literal sense. The level of elegance that can be imbued into a scene where a Nazi officer gets his head beaten in with a Louisville Slugger by Eli Freaking Roth is just astounding. I saw this probably five times in the weeks following its release. And I made sure it was the subject of my last Arclight sojourn, the day before I left California. It's something special.

Precious

LIVIA: Outstanding movie in terms of performances, but nothing special otherwise.
NASTINCHKA: Precious, for me, is a lot like Schindler's List. I recognize its power as a film, but if I never see it again, it will be too soon, because it made me feel absolutely horrible inside, scratched my cerebellum in a place only von Trier ever reaches. Hooray for little movies coasting and all, but my little movie in this race is Kathryn Bigelow's.

A Serious Man

LIVIA: Zero buzz, aside from Colin Firth.
NASTINCHKA: Wait, no, that was A Single Man. Right? No, sorry, don't care. This is how little I can be bothered with either film.

Up

LIVIA: I'm glad to see an animated film back in contention. The 5 nominated films should have been Avatar, Up, The Hurt Locker, Inglourious Basterds, and District 9.
NASTINCHKA: I had to double check to make sure this was even nominated in the right place. Has an animated film ever cracked the Best Picture category since the cartoons were shunted off into their own category?

Up in the Air
NASTINCHKA: You know what I resent the most here? I liked Up in the Air, a very lot. Cloones is good in everything, Vera Farmiga is entrancing, Anna Kendrick's mere presence is a delight. But the fact that it's the product of the preening, precocious Jason Reitman makes me want it to go oh-fer tonight in a big, bad way. Jason Reitman is the kind of guy who will grab you by the wrist and stare into your soul without blinking while talking about His Craft. I beseech the Academy, do not reward his behavior.

AND YOU WILL KNOW ME BY THE TRAIL OF DEAD HATERS SNUBS
NASTINCHKA: A fucking ten-nominee field, which is the worst idea since giving the tech awards to beleaguered costume designers in their back-row seats, has room enough in the fold for Sandra Bullock Ends Racism and The Coen Brothers Had To Make Another Movie This Year, but no love for another nerdy box-office smash and the most genuine article of scifi produced this year?